Ah... the language of the Vantha, Vani. It was a floral language, with a variety of long and short vowel sounds that derived into event greather phonetic combinations to describe something as plain as the color , "white." There were thirteen combinations of the word 'white' describing the various shades of white, and the texture which was implied in. There was snow white, beach-white, whale-white, but that was just one example. Vani, was a fascinating language of study to be sure.
Sound identification involving the Intial sounds, the medial, and the final sounds before venturing into Digraphs and dipthongs. His mind began to absorb it all like a sponge. Muttering a few words in vani himself, he turned towards Coren, book in hand,
"Ho- w are- you- today." The man seemed to ignore him, intent upon his own work and scrawlings but for a moment, Noth wondered what he had done wrong.
The words had came out longer sounding then they should, but he wasn't a vani. He didn't have the innate cultural capacity to fire the syllables off at a thousand words per minute like a chattering chipmunk that all of them seemed to be born with. He figured it must be something like the part of their brains that let their bodies have icewater in their veins. Though , if truth be told, if he was part of a culture ice locked in the sterile sights of the boonies in the north of the world it would be no wonder the language, garments, and crafts were all so endemic to try to beautify their surroundings and attract the eye like a butterfly's wings. Especially in the choking grip of snow and winter where ice and snow only had so many hues. The only thing he'd seen remotely colorful was the auroras in the sky. But it was truly a key to understanding the vantha, and their Vani language. They'd have to become long winded irate people just to keep themselves sane at times!
Suddenly, Noth had an intrinsic revelation on why Cara, Darren, and maybe even Coren seemed to be the way they were...Thumbing through the pages, he started with the Vani alphabet, trying to imprint the way the squiggles of the page meshed and equaled certain written parts of the Common dialect's sounds. Soon, as time stretched on, Noth found himself understand a bit more of the written and verbal language of the Vantha as he strove to attain a basic comprehension of the languages word order.
Many languages were not ordered like common, where a simple sentence would have a noun- and then verb with a subject following after. Like - The Cat ate the mouse . Some languages would portray that same sentence as "whiskered rodent catcher's tummy was filled most adequately." Or some strange nonsense like that. But at least the vani dialect followed the same simple grammatical rules of common. Even if it was capable of spreading out a single syllable into thirteen different words with slightly different connotations or meanings. There were over thirty six permutations between the word 'friend' which could change friend into 'lover' or dear- hearted one.
It was an absolutely fascinating thing to read, and an even greater joy to understand. Soon enough he was playing word games with himself, memorizing the words for day, evening, dusk, and dawn before heading onto the days of the week, and the calendar of how the vani language marked their months and seasons. Willing to try to talk to Coren again he pondered how to form his simple sentence, thinking carefully on which symbols to postulate and coordinate the meaning of his next attempt to gain the man's attention.
"I see that winters here in Avanthal must be cold. In fact- all season-" He stumbled over the word for seasons, a dreadfully complex twisting of the first syllables of each vani word month coinciding into a tongue twisting verbage that would assault the senses of any outsider without the lilting tone the Vantha seemed to sing it with.
''eason-on-ons are quite cold. Aren't they?"This time there was a response from the man in the form of a glare in Noth's direction before he stopped to glance back at his work. The rogue sighed and picked up the book on auristics and engineering he'd found on the shelf to open it upon his lap. Using the dictionary as a guide, he began to translate syllable by syllable the basics of engineering, of how an equilateral triangle, or an arch was the best means to distrubute the weight of a structure around a gap such as a window or a door.
He took that piece of information to heart as he flipped through to see other engineering principles describing weight calculations, and how some timbers could be kept moist if used in the foundations of the ice palace if they were ensured running water at least once a season by an ice reaver. He wasn't quite sure what an ice reaver or ice reaving was, but it seemed interesting enough to read and translate onto the basics statistics of how Auristics could be used to assess and understand damage to a structure.
Then his gaze settled onto one word of the passage that seemed to jump out at him. Noth foolishly spoke the word aloud in Vani, as that was what his mind was trying to learn...
"Auristics".
Whatever the reason for it, his utterance of the term caused Coren to look at him, and then down to the dictionary, and the book Noth held across his lap. And not only that but to the following pages with a few scribbles in another language that was neither vani or common but rather if he could understand would have been clear to the mage that it was the runes of the old language. And beside and under it, a rosetta stone of sorts, transcribing the basics of auristics was split between the three languages present in a manner the author probably believed only a vantha fluent in common and in vani might understand if they had a poor smattering of the ancient tongue... or if one knew a bit of the ancient tongue of nadar canoch already, the information might lead them to piece together the aspects with common. Grasping a greater understanding of all three langauges.
A person reading the book would only be required to know two of the three languages to begin the task of learning, and Noth was sure he'd puzzle it out on his own if need be. It was a like a puzzle or a cryptographic secret. And he loved to figure out secrets... Turning to Coren who was still staring at him, Noth asked again.
"Can you help me? What does this mean?"He paused a moment to puzzle out the words written phonetically next to the runes, and the sentence it formed.
"Djed-Abaset, Gligatl-Djunn Capos-cha-Hea Pon-Pechi-Korad Kapos?"ooc<<Beginning backbone/ Craft -joine/ ocean-of-colors-see / Thoughts-bonded and tied together with colors>>Searching to the back of the book he found a list of the strange syllables and beside it a listing of their vani equivalents. If necessary he could translate the language longhand from vani to common with the dictionary as an aide to discover why "Auristics" seemed to be capable of seeing a weakness of a structure. A fascinating concept he figured might also help him complete his other tasks here in Avanthal this season...
) under thoughts(unconscious) .